Craft With Famous Skippers
This blog has always had a strong military slant, and, well, this post is the product of two unconnected thoughts.
Over on A Tangled Web, Mike Cunningham has written a post on the saving and restoration of Sir Francis Chichester’s old yacht Gypsy Moth IV. He writes:
I read that a couple of people with more money than sense have put up rather a lot of money so that the yacht Gipsy Moth IV will stay in Britain, rather than possibly be sold overseas.
Now I know a little bit about the sea, and small ships, boats and yachts, so I probably find myself in a minority by plaintively asking,”Why the fuss?”
After all, that yacht, is just a collection of timber, steel, aluminium, concrete and fibres, sailing loosely in formation. It has no intrinsic value whatsoever, being as it is some forty-odd years old, and in sad need of a lot of cash being slathered all over its wooden ribs.
Vessels of any type are much more than the sum of their parts. Ask any grey-haired skipper or oil-covered matelot. Mike’s argument is so incredibly wrong-headed that words fail. Perhaps that’s not being objective, though: TheEye must declare two interests here – friendship with Sir Francis’ son Giles Chichester and also a love of sailing so perhaps further comment isn’t appropriate.
But that isn’t the point of this post.
Rather TheEye recently came across some current photographs of ex-HMS Bronington in Birkenhead Docks. Launched 19th March 1953 she is built of mahogany and equally was an undistinguished ship with a famous skipper…the Prince of Wales. Mike’s post is a feeble excuse to publish them here.
After being decommissioned from service, the ship was purchased in January 1989 by the Bronington Trust, a registered charity, whose patron Prince Charles commanded this vessel in 1976.
For some time, the ship was berthed in the Manchester Ship Canal and in 2002, she became part of the collection of the Warship Preservation Trust and moored at Birkenhead. After the closure of the Warship Preservation Trust, she was put into storage, alongside the Rothesay-class frigate HMS Plymouth, at Vittoria Dock, Birkenhead.
Well, maybe “storage” isn’t the right word for it. This is what “storage” means:
Now TheEye doesn’t really care that Prince Charles was once skipper. It’s just, well, sad to see this happen to any ship, especially one of the Grey Funnel Line. The Royal Navy runs thick through my blood, you see.
Fighting ships are living things; they have personality and soul. Like Viking longboats they deserve to die in a blaze of glory, not rot in a junkyard. Preserve it, blow it up or scuttle it.
Sentimentality Corner is now over. Back to other stuff.
UPDATE: Reader Chris writes in that the ship has a website with news of its future and hopefully the restoration project. Thanks Chris!
Totally agree Eye ..
Its a sad, depressing thing to see any former RN vessel waste away like that ..
Coming into Pompey was always depressing for many reasons, but the flyover crossing Pound’s breakers yard was a part of that feeling. I had to go in there on business on several occasions and the submarine hulks were always particularly depressing for me.
As the entrance to the city generally it looked shit to random punters too. I guess someone has cleared it all up by now.
I can fully understand your feelings. The same could apply to all manner of things – aeroplanes, railway locomotives, busses, trucks….the list goes on. And yet you could doubtless find someone who thinks this is a stupid way to carry on, but spends £thousands on surgery for an ageing pet, to keep it alive for another year.
Strange things, people….
I’ve got exactly the same thoughts about RN ships as I have about ageing family pets.
Once they’re getting on a bit, put them on a target range and fire a damn big missile at them. Let them go out in a blaze of pyrotechnic glory, not fade away in a silted up backwater rotting and forgotten.
It’s the lingering death I can’t stand, rather than a desire to preserve everything.
Hmm…Perhaps I should have loosed my eighteen year old Jack Russell from a clay pigeon launcher and did for him with a well aimed twelve bore.
It’s what he would have wanted.
Oooh, that’s a splendid innings for a Jack Russell. I think microdave’s point was more about excessive and cruel life-prolonging treatments weighed against euthanasia than just hitting a certain milestone though 🙂
But very Pythonesque vision you’ve created there, which is a good thing.